Thursday, April 8, 2010

One of my idols, April Winchell, creator of the Regretsy website (http://www.regretsy.com/), recently released her much-anticipated book, "Regretsy- Where DIY Meets WTF". I was fortunate enough to have a small part inside of the book. My artwork is actually April's author photo in the back of her book!

Here's the story:
This past January, I had sent April a miniature clay figure that I fashioned to look just like her in celebration of her 50th Birthday. I took the style of clothing from a picture I found of her on the internet- I made a little white button-down shirt and black jacket for her, glazed her, and sent her off with a card and a poem.

It was beyond my wildest dreams, then, when out of the blue, April sent me an email message saying that she had received the package and liked the miniature April figure so much, that she would like to use a photo of the figure as her author photo in the book! She told me she would contact Random House (who is the publisher for the book) and get back to me. Here and there, I would get emails from April saying she was 90% positive that Random House was going to go for it.

I was flattered enough that she even wanted to use a photo of the figure, and just remained patient, not expecting anything, but hoping that my dream would come true. Then one day, April sent me a picture showing my artwork in her book. That made it real. On April 6th the book was released, and I went right into Borders Bookstore and picked up two copies- one for myself, and one for my folks.

Ironically, I actually won a Regretsy book cover designing contest http://www.regretsy.com/category/contests/, and my prize was a signed copy of the book. I have the intentions to keep the one that April signs wrapped up and untouched. The other copy will go on my coffee table, and the last copy will go to my folks.

The best part of this whole story is I will actually get to meet April in person at the end of the month in Boston! I will share more details as the event draws closer.